Gravity escape means

ABSTRACT

THE POST EXTENDS UPWARDLY FROM THE GROUND LEVEL ALONGSIDE OF A BUILDING TO ONE OR MORE WINDOWS OF THE FLOORS ABOVE THE GROUND, AND PROVIDES OPPOSED TRACKS FOR ROLLER AND BRAKE MEANS OF THE PORTABLE CARRIERS PLACED NEAR THE WINDOWS FOR USE OF OCCUPANTS OF THOSE FLOORS TO LOWER THEMSELVES TO THE GROUND IN CASE OF FIRE OR OTHER IMMINENT DANGER. IN AN EMERGENCY, THE OCCUPANTS CAN EASILY ESCAPE THROUGH SAID WINDOWS BY EACH ONE SEIZING A CARRIER AND MOUNTING IT ON THE POST AND RELEASING THE BRAKES FROM THE PLATFORM OF THE CARRIER CAREFULLY TO LOWER HIMSELF OR HERSELF, WITH DUE REGARD FOR OTHER CARRIERS AT LOWER LEVELS, TO THE GROUND OR OTHER SAFE LEVEL, WHERE THE CARRIERS ARE REMOVED FROM THE POST TO PERMIT OTHER ESCAPESTO FOLLOW AND MAKE THEIR ESCAPE.

A. G. B. PRATHER GRAVITY ESCAPE MEANS Feb. 6, 1973 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 10, 1972 Fig. 5 42 1 Fig. 2

Feb. 6, 1973 A. c. a. PRATHER GRAVITY ESCAPE MEANS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 10, 1972 United States Patent 3,715,011 GRAVITY ESCAPE MEANS Alfred G. B. Prather, 5700 Lincoln Ave., P.0. Box 53, Lanham, Md. 20801 Filed Apr. 10, 1972, Ser. No. 242,404 Int. Cl. A62b 1/20 US. Cl. 182-100 10 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The post extends upwardly from the ground level alongside of a building to one or more windows of the floors above the ground, and provides opposed tracks for roller and brake means of the portable carriers placed near the windows for use of occupants of those floors to lower themselves to the ground in case of fire or other imminent danger. In an emergency, the occupants can easily escape through said windows by each one seizing a carrier and mounting it on the post and releasing the brakes from the platform of the carrier carefully tolower himself or herself, with due regard for other carriers at lower levels, to the ground or other safe level, where the carriers are removed from the post to permit other escapees to follow and make their escape.

A pulley system may be used for automatically returning the removed carriers back to their original floors by means of a counter-balance slightly heavier than the carrier.

The prior art is replete with various means for lowering ones self by means of ropes and carriers attached thereto to enable the escapee to slide down the rope, but none of these devices make use of a rigid post having roller and brake tracks for portable carriers that can be easily mounted on the post in normally braked position, and then controlled from the carrier platform to release the brakes only sufficiently to permit controlled descent from an elevated station of danger in an emergency to safety at a lower level.

The object of the present invention is to provide a simple and safely operable fire escape device.

A further object is to use a rigid post in this fire escape and a portable carrier easily mountable thereon in braked position with a platform and control means thereon for releasing the brakes only sufliciently to lower the carrier by gravity at a controlled speed.

Other and more specific objects will become apparent in the following detailed description of some forms of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view partly in section of a hollow post and a carrier mounted thereon and having an arm extending through an axial slot in said post for supporting a platform on the outside thereof for an escapee to stand on, in accordance with one form of the invention,

FIG. 2 is a sectional plan view thereof taken on the line 2-2 in FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a corresponding sectional view of a modification using a post with an arcuate cross-section,

FIG. 4 is a corresponding sectional view of a modification using a rectangular sectioned post,

FIG. 5 shows an adaptation to a hollow rectangular post slotted through one of its sides,

FIG. 6 is an elevational side view of a carrier device hooked over the outside of a round post, and

FIG. 7 is a sectional plan View of this modification taken on the line 7--7 in FIG. 6.

As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the post may be a hollow cylinder 10 with a slot 12 in one side thereof for the bracket plate 14 of the portable carrier to extend through to support the platform 54 at the bottom of a rod 22 which is suspended from the outer end 24 of said bracket plate. The platform has a pair of rollers 50 at the end of a lever plate 48 extending over the platform and being hinged to its inner end at 56 so as to brace the platform against the outside of said post and tilt the brakes 38 away from their track inside the cylinder 10, when the lever is stepped on, causing a release of the brake pressure thereon to any extent desired for controlling the speed of descent of the carrier with its passengerdriver, who may be the escapee in an actual emergency, who has first mounted the carrier on the post by inserting its guide roller portion into the hollow of the post through a pair of trap doors 44 at the sides of the slot 12 in a position causing the the weight of the platform to brace the brakes against the brake track inside the cylindrical post to prevent its sliding downwardly. Adding the weight of the passenger-driver when he steps on the platform merely wedges the brakes more tightly against the brake track. Thus the carrier will hold from slipping under any load placed on it until the driver releases the brakes by stepping on the foot pedal 58 of lever plate 48 sufiiciently to release the brake pressure under fine control to regulate the speed of descent.

Alternatively the high mechanical advantage lever 34 which is pivoted to the plate 14 at 36 may be used to release the brakes under fine .control of the wedging cam 32 under the end of the lever 34 by operating the handle bars 30 on disc 28 which is rotatably mounted on rod 22 over a shoulder collar 26 fixed to the rod at a suitable height. The lever 34 is normally resiliently biased by spring 40 to press the brakes 38 into engagement with the track inside the cylinder wall of the post and the friction thereagainst is sufficient to prevent sliding of the carrier down the post, and in fact increases if any weight is added to the platform to overcome the additional force of gravity and to frictionally hold the carrier from sliding no matter how much the platform load is increased.

When the escapee steps onto the platform 54, he takes hold of the handle bars 30 to support himself thereon and he can then start and control his descent either by stepping on the pedal 58 to release the brakes by tilting the carrier to relieve their pressure on the brake track to a sufiicient degree to suitably control the descent, or by turning the handle bars 30 to move the annular wedge cam 32 to the desired lift of the end of the lever 34 for relieving the brake pressure for the same purpose.

Obviously it is not necessary to have both means of control on these carriers, since either one of them would normally be suflicient, but it is believed that it might be safer to have both means available in case of malfunction of one of them due to unexpected damage, such as freezing or jamming of the pivoting joints of either control in its normally braked position so that it cannot immediately be used for releasing the brakes to the extent desired.

The guide roller 18 at the lower end of the bracket plate 14 is normally lightly biased against the track even when the foot pedal control is used to tilt the bracket plate away from the post, so as to maintain good frictional contact with the brake track to operate the centrifugal brake means 52 to prevent a free fall of the carrier in case the brakes 38 are accidentally fully released even for an instant.

A stop bolt 42 is adjustably mounted over the end of lever 34 to stop the wedge cam 32 from further turning after the brakes are fully released, so that it may be immediately turned back to apply a desired brake pressure to properly control the speed of descent.

The carriers may be adapted to different forms of crosssections of the post, as is illustrated in the other figures of the drawings.

In FIG. 3, an arcuate sectioned post 60 is mounted on a building wall 62 by means of screws 64, and the carrier has a bracket plate 14 on which the plate release lever 34' is pivotally mounted at 36' to operate the brakes 38'. The plate 14' has an arm plate 66 on top with its outer end 24 bored to receive the platform suspension rod, and a stop bolt 42 is mounted in it over the end of lever 34'. The arm plate 66 further has a pair of radial arms extending to the guide rollers 20' which are pushed through the trap doors in the edges of the arcuate post 60 when mounting the carrier thereon.

FIG. 4 illustrates the use of a cross beam form of post 70, two adjacent webs of which provide the opposed roller and brake tracks for the rollers 20" and the brakes 38" respectively. The rollers are passed through the trap doors 44" which are mounted on hinges 46 in the edges of these webs during mounting of the carriers thereon.

The bracket plate 14" has an arm plate 72 at its top which has a triangular portion extending to the point Where the lever 34" is pivoted to the bracket plate for operating the brakes 38" which are normally spring biased against their tracks and released by either of the two control means described above, and similarly mounted on the platform and rod suspended from the arm plate 72 at 24".

FIG. shows an adaptation of a bracket plate similar to that shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, to a rectangular hollow beam post 80, where the guide rollers 76 and 78 are mounted on bearings extending normally from the arm 82 at the top of the bracket plate for engaging the opposed roller and brake tracks inside the hollow rectangular post 80. The brakes 74 are connected for operation by the lever 34 which is pivoted on the bracket plate extending below said arm 82.

The post 70', shown hollow, does not have to be hollow since the roller and brake tracks are on the outside of the post, and the roller track is flanked by side ridges 72' for axial guidance of the roller 102 thereon, so that the carrier when mounted on the post will not tend to revolve about the post during its descent. The horizontal cantilever arm 74' is formed to hook the roller 102 against the roller track on the back of the post and brace the fulcrum guide roller 104 mounted at the bottom of the bracket plate 90 against the front on the brake track side of the post 70', the brakes 98 being simultaneously biased against the brake track by spring 40 as in FIGS. 1 and 2. Roller 104 is of the high friction type and is connected to a centrifugal speed governor 100 to prevent a free fall of the carrier should the brakes be accidentally fully released even for an instant, by carelessly turning the cam 88 too far under the end of lever 92, or by stepping too much on the foot pedal 106, or both. The platform 112 is suspended by rod 78' from the outer end 76' of the cantilever carrier.

The stop bolt 42 is adjustable as in the other modifications to stop the wedge cam 88 from being turned before the end of lever 92 has reached the top of the cam so that the control handle bars may be immediately moved in the reverse direction to resume brake pressure control.

The roller 104 is lightly spring biased outwardly to maintain good frictional contact with the brake track when the foot lever 106 is operated to control the brake pressure by tilting the bracket plate away from the post.

Many obvious modifications in details and arrangement of parts to adapt these devices to other uses may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A gravity operated emergency device for escaping from danger at an elevated level to safety at a lower level, comprising a post extending between said levels and having opposed vertically extending roller and brake tracks, and

one or more portable carriers with suspended load platforms slidably mountable on said post and having rollers and brake shoes and means responsive to the weight of the platform for biasing them against said tracks in opposed directions to hold said carrier in braked position, and

control means for adjustably releasing said brakes to regulate the speed of descent of said carrier.

2. An escape device as defined in claim 1,

said post being solid and having external tracks for said rollers and brakes.

3. An escape device as defined in claim 1,

said post being hollow and having internal tracks for said rollers and brakes,

said carriers having bracket plates with support arms extending through an axial slot running the length of the post,

said arms having load platforms suspended from their outer ends.

4. An escape device as defined in claim 2,

the cross section of said post being arcuate,

the outer edges thereof providing said tracks,

5. An escape device as defined in claim 2,

the cross section of said post being a cross,

two adjacent webs of said cross providing said tracks.

6. An escape device as defined in claim 3,

the cross section of said post being rectangular,

the inner surf-aces of said slotted side and the side opposite thereto providing said tracks.

7. An escape device as defined in claim 3, and

hinged trap doors at suitable levels along the sides of said slot for passing said rollers and other structure of said portable during their insertion or removal from said hollow post.

8. An escape device as defined in claim 3,

said brakes having means on said carrier for normally biasing them against said brake track, and

cam means for adjustably releasing said brakes to control the speed of descent of said carrier.

9. An escape device as defined in claim 3,

said platform being rigidly suspended from the end of said support arm,

the inner edge of said platform having a lever plate hinged thereto and extending upwardly over the top of the platform,

the other arm of said lever plate extending downwardly from the hinge to the post for adjustably bracing thereagainst by pressing down on said lever to tilt said carrier so as to relieve the brake pressure to the desired extent for controlling the speed of descent.

10. An escape device as defined in claim 9, and

a high friction roller at the lower end of said carrier normally biased to make good contact with the brake track in any tilted position of said carrier, and

a centrifugal governor operated by said high friction roller to check the speed of descent if the brakes are accidentally fully released even for an instant.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 696,711 4/1902 Briner 182l89 2,658,702 11/1953 Osborne 182l89 2,965,193 12/1960 Murphy 182-189 REINALDO P. MACHADO, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 188166 

